Your favourite salsa records

[gvopedz]

Inocente

 

[gvopedz]

Funeral for Salsa legend Rafael Ithier:

 

[gvopedz]

El Combo de Ayer:

 

[gvopedz]

Bamboleate!

 

[gvopedz]

Some cumbia:  the classic "Elsa" (for those who are tired of the Fania roster)

 

[Rabshakeh]

I wonder whether any of the contributors to this thread could help me with a potentially silly question (I thought it best to park it mid-thread rather than to create its own). 

Is there a name for the era of Latin music between the 1950s and 1960s around the Spanish speaking Caribbean but outside of the obvious Latin music hotspots of Cuba and New York? 

This seems to have been a period of flourishing local bands in territories like Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Columbia, playing in conjunto or big band format, releasing records with covers that have a colour photograph of the band dressed in tuxedos outside in a park area or doing a group activity like washing a car. Musically the records tend to be quite stylistically diverse, maybe with a focus on pre-salsa son styles, mambo or guaracha, but with local styles like bomba, merengue, cumbia or plena in the mix, and maybe one guaguanco or boogaloo track. 

Examples of records might be 

Cortijo Y Su Combo Con Ismael Rivera – Bueno, Que...? from Puerto Rico

Orquesta Porfi Jimenez – Porfin Porfi from Venezuela

it is a very specific period of music, with a unified aesthetic and similar approach to diversity of styles. I am not looking to over define things but I wondered whether there is an acknowledged way to refer to this era, similar to other non-metropolitan musical booms like the Territory swing and R&B bands of the 1940s or Garage Rock in the 1960s.

Is this a recognised era? Or is it just called pre-salsa tropical music or something? 

[JSngry]

Tropicale?

[Rabshakeh]

9 hours ago, JSngry said:

Tropicale?

I suspect that's the answer but is that the term for all of this music from the 1920s to present day? I'm trying to find out whether there's a snappier term for the era that "pre-salsa musica tropicale in conjunto or big band format that isn't from New York or Cuba". It is so clearly a historical/aesthetic singular moment. 

[JSngry]

I was in a house band at a club called La Roca. The band was called La Roca's Tropicale and we played the type of musics you're describing. There were seemingly innumerable stocks of all kinds of things I had never heard before, meaning that it had been popular for a while.

I'd certainly not use this to prove a point, just saying that it's certainly not an uncommon vernacular term.

[Rabshakeh]

43 minutes ago, JSngry said:

I was in a house band at a club called La Roca. The band was called La Roca's Tropicale and we played the type of musics you're describing. There were seemingly innumerable stocks of all kinds of things I had never heard before, meaning that it had been popular for a while.

I'd certainly not use this to prove a point, just saying that it's certainly not an uncommon vernacular term.

I mean, it is what I was expecting. Unfortunately, not just not an uncommon vernacular term but also an unGoogleable one. 

[JSngry]

I'd not worry about Google. They're don't really matter.

[Rabshakeh]

I'm looking for recommendations, rather than Google's opinion. 

[Dub Modal]

Man, wish I could help. Tropicale sounds about on the nose to me. It seems to cast a wide enough net that encompasses the various cultures involved, while also describing the kind of production expected on these albums. If there's something else out there I'd love to know it.

[Rabshakeh]

Well, "pre-salsa musica tropicale in conjunto or big band format that isn't from New York or Cuba" it is, then I guess. 

If anyone has some great recommendations within that snappily titled non-genre, please flag them here too. 

[Rabshakeh]

Another question for the Latin fans on here: where else do you go to discuss this music? Reddit seems pretty rotten. 

Apologies to the admins for this, but I think it's fair to ask given that this isn't meant to be a Latin music forum. 

I have a burning desire for more recommendations in the beloved P-SMTiCoBBFtifNYoC genre. 

[Dub Modal]

35 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

Another question for the Latin fans on here: where else do you go to discuss this music? Reddit seems pretty rotten. 

Apologies to the admins for this, but I think it's fair to ask given that this isn't meant to be a Latin music forum. 

I have a burning desire for more recommendations in the beloved P-SMTiCoBBFtifNYoC genre. 

There may be some good Instagram channels that talk about this style that would give leads and some discussion. Other than access to musicians themselves I'm not sure of other options right now. Reddit sucks across nearly all music genres I've come to learn. 

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

Apologies to the admins for this, but I think it's fair to ask given that this isn't meant to be a Latin music forum. 

Nonsense! No reason at all to avoid the subject here or to be reticent about it .

It all connects up at some point. Militant purism is toxic, fuck that.